Races
'Classification' There are five basic categories that almost all races fall into. These categories are Humanoid, Demonic, Beast, Undead and Inanimate. Each branch has its own qualifacations that make it and its members unique from the rest, but there occasionally blurred lines between categories and some races that do not fall into any of the above. ''Humanoid'' Humanoids are the most numerous branch, and then the branch itself is dominated by humans and their sub-races. Humanoids can greatly vary in terms of abilities but despite being the largest branch, each individual race often looks similar to the others. To be a humanoid, the race must only have two arms and two legs, have skin on a color scale from pale to dark brown, and have hair and not fur. Humanoids rarely have tails, but some races may have wings or tails. Hands and feet can also be slightly different from race to race. How do you tell the difference between a human sub-breed and another member of the Humanoid family? Remember the big four differences! #Humans always have ten fingers and toes (but not neccisarily specific individuals), and you cannot determine the sub-race of a human from their fingerprints (You can identify that they're human, though!). #Humans have the most hair on their heads. #Humans only have two arms and two legs, no additional limbs. #Humans races have similar sets of teeth, and it is impossible to determine the sub-race of a human from their tooth imprints (You can identify that they're human, though!). Humanoids throughout history rarely get along with Demons, though throughout history they have rarely gotten along with anyone. There's even fighting within their own branch. Behavior of a Humanoid varies greatly depending on race, but overall they are often intelligent, curious and passionate about one topic or another. ''Beastial'' Beasts, the racial branch, are different than wild animals. All Beasts are sentient, and have the ability to comprehend language beyond simple commands even if one race cannot speak in the common tongue. Beasts rarely create tools or build things for themselves, and therefore each race often has many sub-divisions as Beasts often must evolve to suit their environment. For an example, think of a poodle and a husky. Beasts do not have inherent magical powers, magic must be taught to them through years of training, and unless it is a sub-breed all of their races only have one head and one mind. Beasts can be herbivores and/or carnivores, live longer than the average Humanoid, be swifter or stronger, but they are rarely smarter than the other branches. ''Demonic'' While Demonics are not the most numerous, they are easily the most varied. They can seemingly be anything that doesn't fit neatly into Humanoid or Beast, and some demons can simply look like blue humans or bipedial animals while others are beasts with thousands of eyes and six legs. They are so different from one another that there are four unique categories of Demons themselves, and some of these categories do not classify themselves with the Demonic branch. *'Fell' Fells (or Fallen) are what one would expect of a demon. They often have some association to a dark power, the body shapes that are most unlike any other branch and more often than not the most negative dispositions. Though two of those can often just be stereotypes. Just because a Demon is a Fell doesn't mean that they are devilspawn by default, in temperment or loyalties. Fells can be anything from a monstrous mass of claws and fangs walking about on cloven hooves or even parasitic life forms, but all Fells share a common trait; they must live off of others, be it by literally consuming them or gaining strength from their life force or emotions. There are no Fells that can eat only plant matter. Most Fells cannot produce viable offspring with anything other than other Fell Demons. *'DeMan' 'DeMen (plural) are the closest to Humanoids on any branch besides Humanoid itself. All DeMen follow the upright body plan of Humanoids, but can be vastly different from their non-Demonic counterparts. DeMen are not limited to two legs and two arms, and are much more likely to have tails and horns. Sometimes there are small differences between a DeMan and a Humanoid, such as hair that is actually fur or skin that is actually fine scales. Human-esque races that don't completley fit in the Humanoid branch often fall into the DeMan classification. Overall DeMen tend to be more durable, live longer lives, or be more powerful than Humanoids, but they do not reproduce as fast. DeMen Demons and Humanoids can usually crossbreed to produce fertile offspring, and there are many examples in history, but DeMan/Humanoid hybrids are often discriminated against in both societies and in worst case scenario, prosecuted. *'Monster/Mythic Monsters and Mythics are to Beasts as DeMen are to Humanoids. Monsters/Mythics are animal-esque Demons that don't fit perfectly into the Beastial branch. Monsters/Mythics are often born with magical powers and can learn to use them the same way that babies learn to use their hands. If it's inherently born with magical powers, or has multiple heads, it's a Monster/Mythic, if it can do physical feats with no help from magic, it's not neccisarily a Monster/Mythic. The difference between a Monster and a Mythic is the kind of magical power it's born with. Monsters have natural access to dark magics while Mythics have access to any other type. Dragons are confusing, and no one knows where they fall because of their hundreds of breeds. Depending on the source they may be called Monsters, or Mythics, or sometimes even just Beasts. There are a select few who even suggest that Dragons are so numerous that they should have their own classification. *'Anthrope' 'Of the three sub-families in the Demonic branch, Anthropes identify the least with Demonics. Anthropes are animals mixed with Humanoids, not just Humanoids with cat ears and tails. Anthropes must be at least 50% their animal to be considered an Anthrope, in whichever distribution imaginable. A Centaur is an Anthrope, as well as a Minotaur. Some Shapeshifters belong in this branch, and Anthropes can have any combination of powers that either of their halves would possess. Anthropes are officially classed as Demons, but many either don't know this or take great offense to it. There is much talk of seperating the Anthrope classification and making it its own branch, but so far there are not enough official Anthrope races in documentation. ''Undead Undeads are oddities in that they were all once members of another race, ar at the very least any given majority of an Undead race once was. Be it through reincarnation, unnatural creation or transformation, Undeads are not born through natural methods. What also makes this branch unique is that most of its members are not technically alive and cannot be killed via normal methods. However, this comes at a cost. Most Undeads have a glaring flaw which makes individuals easy to 're-kill' once the weakness is found out. The most powerful Undeads may be harder to create than the more numerous, weaker ones. It's a common misconception that Undeads are all mindless monsters out for guts and brains, but this is not true of an official member of an Undead race, and all examples of these Re-deads are officially counted as unnatural pheunomina or magic spells. To be an Undead, or any official race, all individuals must be sentient. There are stories of Undeads that come back to life and reclaim the lives they once had, without anyone knowing they ever died! This branch includes the stereotypical Zombie archetypes as well as Ghosts and those like them. Please note that it's not common to become an Undead, and if anyone dies it is much more likely they will just die than turn into one of these without the use of foul play. ''Inanimates'' In the morning, expect this section, you will. '''List of Current Races Ashura Azazel Beastlings Clockwork Demons Dragons Draugr Empusa Elves Fairies Grilden Huli (jing) Human Icari Mentamontis Nagas Netric Phoenixes Sesseljae Shadow Walkers Shargonacs Sirens Snow Wrights Tsarico Typhon Uccello Valravn Vampires